Commenting mainly on France and U.S.policy in the Middle East and Central Asia.
Author of "Web of Deceit, the History of Western Complicity in Iraq, from Churchill to Kennedy to George W. Bush." Now finishing a novel, "The Watchman's File," delving into Israel's most closely-guarded secret. [It's not the bomb.]

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Tuesday, April 16, 2013

Boston & Cowardice & America the Blind

As
I write this, we still don’t know who was responsible for the horrific bombing
attack in Boston. Perhaps it will turn out to be the work of home grown
rightwing nuts; perhaps it’s the act of foreign terrorists. But, whatever the
source, what strikes me is the number of times the barbaric assault is being denounced
as “cowardly”

As
in Boston Police Commissioner Ed Davis’s warning
that “This cowardly act will not be taken in stride.”

Indeed, “Cowardly” is the epithet being used by political figures across the
United States; it was used by an editorial writer in Kansas
City Star and a spokesman
for the United Maryland Muslim Council in Baltimore.

“Cowardly”
is the term being used in messages of support from abroad, from the Prime
Minister of India
to the Prime Minister of Italy.

After
all, what could be more cowardly than for some unknown, unseen, unannounced killer to blow apart and maim innocent
men women and children, without any risk to himself.

But,
if that be the definition of cowardice, what could be more cowardly, than the now
cliché image of the button-down CIA officer agent driving to work in Las Vegas
to assume his shift at the controls of a drone circling high over some dusty
village on the other side of the world?

How
different are the images produced by such attacks—shattered bodies, dismembered
limbs, severed arteries, frantic aid givers and terrified survivors—how different
from the moving images of the tragedy in Boston now being broadcast and
rebroadcast on TV stations around the globe?

With
those scenes in mind, I would ask you to read a portion of a
blog on Drone Wars I posted a few weeks ago, citing the fact
that over the past few years, U.S. drones have made mincemeat out of an
estimated 3000 to 4000 people in Pakistan, Afghanistan, Yemen, and
Somalia.At least 200 of them were
children.

“The
figures are very rough because no one--certainly not the U.S. government--is
releasing an accurate count. The London
based Center for Investigative reporting, which attempts to track the drone
strikes, has been able to identify by name only a few hundred of the actual
victims. Who knows what their political affiliations really were? Or even less,
what considerations—legal and otherwise—went into justifying their demise?

“It’s
a terrifying situation.” Jennifer Gibson told me. She’s an American lawyer in
London with Reprieve, an organization taking on the “drone war” issue. “There
are villages in Pakistan,” she says “that have drones flying over them 24 hours
a day. Sometimes they’ll stay for weeks. But my clients and people there have
no way of knowing if they are being targeted. Or what kind of behavior is
likely to get them killed.

“They
don’t know if the person riding beside them in a car or walking with them in
the marketplace may be a target. It’s terrorizing entire communities. Even
after an attack, there is no acknowledging by the U.S. government, no response
at all, absolutely no accountability. And the vast majority of casualties don’t
even have names attached to them.”

“Christof
Heyns, the UN special rapporteur on extrajudicial killings, summary or
arbitrary executions, told
a conference in Geneva that President Obama's attacks in Pakistan, Yemen and elsewhere, carried
out by the CIA, would encourage other states to flout long-established human
rights standards. He suggested that some strikes may even constitute “war
crimes”.

“But,
few Americans seem to carry about U.N. rapporteurs. It’s only when Americans are potential targets for
those drones, that Congress and the media get stirred up.

“And
they’re probably right. A recent poll
taken by Farleigh Dickinson University’s Public Mind, found that by a two to
one margin (48% to 24%) American voters say they think it’s illegal for the
U.S. government to target its own citizens abroad with drone strikes.

“But,
when it comes to using drones to carry out attacks abroad “on people and other
targets deemed a threat to the U.S.” voters were in favor of a margin of
six-to-one [75% to 13%].

(You
may be interested in checking out another
blog I wrote-“Drone Wars: The End of History?”)Since I first posted this blog, a reader, Jim Rissman has sent me the link to a brief news article about a drone strike in Pakistan on Sunday--day before the Boston attack:

A US drone strike killed four militants on Sunday in the Datta Khel tehsil of North Waziristan Agency.

A security official said the US drone fired two missiles at a compound in Manzar Khel area of Datta Khel, some 40 kilometres towards west of Miramshah, the headquarters of the agency.

Tribesmen recalled seeing six drones hovering in the air since the afternoon, spreading panic and fear in the area. One of the drones fired two missiles at around sunset, killing at least four militants.

The compound caught fire after the strike leaving all the bodies burnt.

The last drone strike occurred in the agency on March 22, when US drones targeting a vehicle in Datta Khel killed four militants.

A UN envoy last month said US drone attacks violate Pakistan’s sovereignty.

4 comments:

It's hard to listen to the president and other officials condemn these attacks while commiting acts of greater violence overseas.

People here who have a brain know it's wrong and don't vote Democrat or Republican. Creating new terrorists is a win-win for defense contractors and the government itself... they are creating the problem they are paid to solve.

Columbia's Law School Human Rights Institute also reports very high figures of civilians killed due to drone strikes.

And I'm sure you are aware by now (as I leave this comment on April 25) it's been made public there is a long standing tradition of both the FBI and CIA promoting the radicalization of young Muslim men for clandestine purposes either abroad or at home. Of course using the term 'radicalization' is a polite way of naming these young men for what they really are; fall guys or patsies. It's their shoulders the evil deed is conveniently blamed on.

In Canada where I am, the FBI and RCMP have also this week announced they've foiled a would-be 'terrorist' plot here. As in the US, Canada is also losing its democracy.

Our Prime Minister Stephen Harper is no fan of democracy. Harper is by far the most blatant fascist Canada has ever seen. 'Amerika' is coming to Canada. As a result of all this surreal BS the implosion of the US dollar is probably not too far off unless something happens to turn this ship around.

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About Me

Originally from Vancouver, studied at Harvard, Harvard Law and Columbia University, then correspondent for Time Life in South America, and 30 years as Producer with 60 Minutes in Washington D.C. and Paris, where I now live. Wrote book on history of Western Invervention in Iraq, Web of Deceit, now writing a novel, painting, travelling, visiting friends and relatives.